He heard a noise behind him and spun around. Bert stood thirty feet away in the shadows, holding the radio detonator in his right hand. Curtis and Jerry’s lights landed on Bert a second after Seth’s – just in time to see Bert’s mouth open to speak but the words never got past his lips as they pumped at least a dozen well-aimed rounds into his bullet-proof-jacketless torso. The detonator dropped from his hand a second before he fell face-first into the dewy grass. Seth cringed, listening for the sound of the incendiaries going off. Nothing.
“One down,” Seth said as they turned back to the lab. They were now just a few feet from the door.
He tapped Jerry on the shoulder and pointed to the other side of the doorway. Jerry ran across to the other side. The three men stood with their backs against the wall.
“We know you’re in there,” Seth said. “Come out. We won’t hurt you.”
Silence. He looked over at Jerry who shrugged.
“This is your last chance,” Seth said.
“You’ll never get away with it,” a vaguely familiar voice said from the darkness inside.
Seth cocked his head. He recognized the voice. It was distinctive, French, old – Alby Fournier!
“Alby, that you?” Seth said. “You kill the power? What’re you doing?”
“I saw what you did to Annie and Stu,” Alby said. “I watched them and the Wild Bear burn.”
He motioned to Jerry and mouthed, “On my signal.” The rustling of paper and a piece of furniture sliding across the floor came out of the darkness.
“I didn’t want to do that, Alby. Stu screwed up. You know how it is. Sometimes we got to do what we got to do.”
“Uh-huh. And I’m doing what I got to do to. I saw something in that fire. Like nothing I never seen before. It came out of the flames, walked right out like a man. It talked to me. Told me what you’re doing. Said it was against the rules.”
“Rules? Whose rules?”
“God’s,” he replied. More sounds of furniture skittering across the floor floated through the door. “I know it all. Sarah Burns is Molech, God of the Ammonites, back to sacrifice the children just like the Old Book said and you’re her imps.”
Seth shook his head. “You willing to die for a phantom, a figment of your imagination, Alby.”
“Weren’t no phantom. I seen God and He asked me to do something for Him. Just like when Solomon turned away from the Lord and followed the evil gods like Molech, building altars so his wives could sacrifice children to their horrible God. The Lord raised up adversaries to Solomon then and now he’s asked me to be the same. The nuns at St. Lukes told me I was special and here I am doing His business. At His request, just like they said. I’m going to stop you.”
Seth glanced at his men, rolled his eyes and counted softly, “One, two, three.”
They burst into the room waving their flashlights around wildly. Curtis started shooting. The other two joined in, spraying the room with gunfire.
“Hold on!” Seth screamed. “Hold on.”
They stopped shooting and looked around the smoky room – nobody.
“What did you shoot at?” Seth asked Curtis.
“I thought I saw him over there,” Curtis said as he pointed to the far corner of the room.
Seth motioned for Curtis to go check it out as he glanced at Jerry. Curtis crept across the room, looking around the tables and boxes. Not finding anything.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “I could have sworn I saw—”
His voice was cut off by the roar of a shotgun as Alby, who had been hiding under the mess of papers and boxes left on the floor, jumped up and unloaded both barrels at point-blank range. Curtis’ head erupted in a horrific explosion of flesh and blood.
Alby dove back to the floor.
The sight of their friend’s headless body hesitating before crumpling to the floor made both of them pause.
“Don’t move any closer,” Alby called. “I got plenty of rounds here and these next ones are yours.”
Seth and Jerry glanced at each other. “Calm down now, Alby,” Seth said. “We need to talk about this. You’ve got the wrong idea. We can explain everything.” He nodded to Jerry and they both edged slowly toward Alby’s location.
“I said don’t move,” shouted Alby standing up and fumbling with a shell that refused to seat properly in the break-action gun. Too late. Seth and Jerry emptied their clips into him. Alby’s body twitched and jerked as each bullet entered it.
Seth fired his last round as Alby fell forward onto one of the lab tables and rolled face up, dropping his shotgun to the floor. Blood bubbled out of his mouth. Seth reached over and pulled out a tattered Bible that was protruding from Alby’s shirt pocket. A bullet hole perforated the worn leather cover. The backside was bloody. The holy book was bleeding – mortally wounded.
He looked down at Alby shaking his head. “Why did you have to get involved old-timer? Where’s your God now, eh? He wasn’t around to protect you this time was he?”
Seth slammed his fist onto the table “Fuck!” He yelled. “Why is everything going wrong. Come on, let’s get out of here before someone else turns up.”
Jerry was just about to say something when a popping sound disturbed them.
“What the…” Seth said. The sound had come from the fifty-five-gallon drum filled with explosives. The detonators had just gone off. In less than ten seconds the lab would become a raging inferno.
“Oh my god!” Jerry exclaimed.
“Run!” Seth screamed. As he turned for the door, his right foot stepped into the pool of blood forming around Curtis’ body and shot out from under him. Jerry leapt over a small workbench and sprinted toward the door.
The wind left Seth’s lungs as he landed on his back on the hardwood floor. He looked over at the barrel that started to erupt with flames. He only had seconds to live if he didn’t get out of here.
Struggling to his knees, he grabbed onto the table and managed to get to his feet but his lungs didn’t understand their function. The barrel started to roar. Flames no longer simply shot out of the top of the barrel; they were thrust out with a force that increased tenfold every second. If the barrel had been on its side, it would have become a rocket.
He tried to step away from the table, but had to grab it again. His legs still didn’t have any strength. The flames raced across the ceiling and the temperature in the room skyrocketed.
He staggered toward the door. The rumbling sharp snaps of the inferno filled the air. He looked to his right and saw the flames racing down the far wall and across the floor toward him. The giant flame vortex converged on him from all angles pushing a hot wind and burning debris – wanting to sweep him up. Alby’s prophetic words came back to him “You’re her imps.” Jesus Christ!
This must be what an NFL quarterback felt like when the blitz was on. Ten more feet to go. He leaned forward and with every bit of strength he could muster, sprinted for the door. The flames caught up to him just as he passed through the entrance and out into the cool air. The hair on the back of his head burst into flames as did his shirt. He kept running far enough away from the fire to be safe; then fell to the ground and started rolling wildly, trying to put out the flames on his head and clothes.
Jerry pounded at the flames with his hands and they managed to extinguish them. Seth lay there staring at the sky, breathing deeply. He rolled over and looked at the lab. It was fully engulfed. They watched in silence as the lab and the lodge burned to the ground.